(NEW!) Confusion Matrix of Hip-Hop, House and Kwaito

               Truth
Prediction      CLASSIC HOUSE HIP HOP SA KWAITO
  CLASSIC HOUSE            35       4         8
  HIP HOP                   1      35        13
  SA KWAITO                14      11        29

# A tibble: 3 x 3
  class         precision recall
  <fct>             <dbl>  <dbl>
1 CLASSIC HOUSE     0.745  0.7  
2 HIP HOP           0.714  0.7  
3 SA KWAITO         0.537  0.580

# A tibble: 3 x 3
  class         precision recall
  <fct>             <dbl>  <dbl>
1 CLASSIC HOUSE     0.913   0.84
2 HIP HOP           0.778   0.7 
3 SA KWAITO         0.695   0.82

Kwaito. A computational analysis of the the South African (sub)genre

This computational analysis explores the authenticity of Kwaito and traces the origin of the genre within the context of the globalisation of music. In the following tabs you’ll find a data analysis of Spotify’s track level features, such as tempo, valence and danceability. We’ll also inspect the chroma features of a classic Kwaito song and touch upon the loudness and timbre features and look in to the structural segments, beats and rhythm. Combining the different styles of musical analysis we hope te gain insights on the characteristics of the true Kwaito sound as well as the possibilities and limitations of the Spotify API.

A brief history of Kwaito

The sound of Kwaito developed in the late 1980’s in the townships of South Africa and came to be the soundtrack for a youth culture movement. With it’s peak in the 90’s the Kwaito sound also started to spread globally. From then on, collectors and diggers across the globe started discovering the genre and finding its endless source of inspiration. As they do, Kwaito is still fuelling dance floors to this day.

The broad and varied form of Kwaito makes it a hard to completely encapsulate as a genre. Kwaito fuses elements of traditional South African music with other genres throughout the African diaspora.

Kwaito was originally heard as simply slowed-down house music. The repetitive four on the floor beat and swung high hat patterns are some of the characteristics that closely link to the classic structure of house music. What’s for sure is that it holds the power to make dance floors shake. In general the sound is known for it’s danceability, making it’s way to the clubs and festival grounds all around the world. Others recognise a strong hip-hop influence. The late ‘80s the township slang of South Africa helped form kwaito’s backbone, according to Mdluli, who is seen as one of the founders of the genre. Reflecting on social changes and cavernous cracks in South-African society, Kwaito is labeled by some as ’South African Hip-Hop’. The influence of Hip-Hop is coming to the surface as a number of Kwaito songs have clear references to the American hip-hop, paying homage to songs by the likes of Snoop Dogg and Grandmaster Flash.

Defining the genre seems to be a struggling proces for some, making Kwaito a fascinating and compelling subject of research. In this portfolio a computational analysis is done to explore the authenticity and origins of the South African (sub)genre.

Hip-Hop, House or Kwaito?

plot of tempo and speechiness in hiphop

Let’s look at the data

Chroma

Tempogram

Self-Similarity

Conclusion